SAVANT Guitars - full solid handmade



For making the other "chapters" (Top, Body, Fretboard, Neck etc.) not a too long read and trying to reduce them to the essentials, I added this chapter "Assembly", all that fits will be published here.


First we needed to maintain our glue press, and for being "vintage correct" (regarding the press) we needed to source oak for a replacement part of the press, what was hard to source in the right dimensions ... seems that high flamed maple is easier to get than simple oak for this high-tech machine, but finally we got it, looking now like this (white spots are from flash):



The press was formerly used some decades ago for pressing grapes, but was converted by me to a glue-press, working well for glueing tops to bodies on electric guitars or tops and backs to the sides for acoustic guitars, esp. when working with hot hide glue where you have just a limited time frame.

The plate on the bottom is made of thick MDF and is an oversized LesPaul-shape that was preserved with boiled linseed oil first and then lacquered with shellac for preventing any oil or resins on the surface that could stick to the raw mahogany body that comes above.


Here is a body and a top on the lacquered base plate, just demonstrating the process:




Between the location of the tailpiece and the end of the fretboard the top of a vintage LesPaul is plane at 1.1-1.2 degree and accepts perfectly the "shoe" (flat bottom) of the pressing system: at the bottom of the thread there is a round ball-like end, allowing the shoe to press "self-calibrating" and flat at any given angle:



The pics are just showing the principle of the process, what is simple: after the top has been positioned on the mahoganie back it gets pressed down by the flat shoe at the shown position, being pressed to the top side of the body that was saturated with UF-glue before; then a lot of grip clamps are placed around the outline for getting a perfect glue joing along the edge (here just shown one grip clamp for demonstration). Due to the LesPaul-shape of the MDF-plate below you have easy access to the edge at all points around the guitar. 




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Pics from a real glueing operation are coming soon.